Many portable electronic devices, such as, for example, mobile phones, hand-held computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., have displays (sometimes referred to as screens or display screens) on which various images, information, text, icons, etc., may be shown. Many of such devices also have a screensaver (also referred to as a screensaver function) that activates after a period of time to turn off or to blank the display of the device or to present a standard image such as the name of the device manufacturer or of the wireless carrier or a standard GUI (graphical user interface), etc. Screensavers are useful for a number of reasons, e.g., to conserve power, to avoid showing information that might be seen by an unauthorized person, etc. For example, a screensaver may turn off the display if the user of the device does not provide within a specified period of time a conventional input to the device, e.g., by manually or otherwise pressing a key, operating a cursor, such as a navigation/function selection key (referred to below as a navigation key for brevity), pointer, trackball or touch pad, or touching a stylus or a finger to a touch sensitive display screen, etc.
Sometimes a screensaver may activate at an inconvenient moment or time. For example, a screensaver may activate to blank a display while a user is looking at the image on the display, e.g., while reading a lengthy text or document shown on the display or while studying a map, picture or other image shown on the display. The user would have to reactivate the display or to stop the effect of the screensaver by providing a conventional input to the device; and having to do this once or sometimes several times may be an inconvenience.